8 vacations based on books: Sherlock Holmes' London

8 vacations based on books

Sherlock Holmes' London

More than 100 years after he first gained popularity in the pages of Strand Magazine, Sherlock Holmes still captures readers' imaginations. The genius detective and his sidekick Watson spent many stories scouring the streets of Victorian London for clues and suspects. Though it still is sometimes shrouded in fog, London is now a very modern city with many roads that little resemble the cobblestone streets and narrow lanes of Holmes' era.

However, you can still visit historic areas throughout the city. These include the site where 221B Baker Street is located (it is now a museum). The Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour, offered by London Walks, leads fans on a route that passes through the narrow alleyways of the Strand and the atmospheric air and impressive opera house of the Convent Gardens. Many spots in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories are now themed attractions. The Sherlock Holmes Pub, for example, was created on the spot where the Northumberland Hotel, the setting of an important scene in the famous "Hound of the Baskerville's" mystery, once sat.